


when I touch you I feel happy inside

by torigates



Category: Psych
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shawn was sitting at his desk, leaning impossibly far back in his chair, to the point where he almost seemed to be defying gravity. Juliet wondered if there was ever a rule Shawn came across that he didn’t want to break if he could even push the laws of physics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	when I touch you I feel happy inside

“Hi Jules.”

The words were familiar enough, but it was the tone that stopped Juliet in her tracks. Shawn sounded nothing like his usual, happy-go-lucky self. In fact, he sounded... sad. It took Juliet a minute to place the emotion because the tone was that foreign coming from Shawn.

“Hi,” she said hesitantly. Juliet had stopped by the Psych office because things had gotten particularly heated at the police station earlier. The case they were working on involved fourteen year old missing Amelia Jones, and Shawn and Lassiter had been butting heads more than usual. The two men had come to a shouting match, which Juliet and the Chief had to physically break apart.

Shawn was sitting at his desk, leaning impossibly far back in his chair, to the point where he almost seemed to be defying gravity. Juliet wondered if there was ever a rule Shawn came across that he didn’t want to break if he could even push the laws of physics. His feet were resting precariously on the edge of his desk. His laptop was open in front of him, and he was holding a bright orange tennis ball in his hand, which he had probably been tossing against the wall (Juliet could see the scuff marks, and she knew Gus would not be pleased). Juliet took a moment to take it all in before she entered the room.

Shawn looked up at her and tried for a smile, but his usually flamboyant expression was missing its unique spark. “Are you okay?” she ventured.

He scoffed. “Jules, please. I am always okay. I am _more_ than okay, I am good, great, grand, gerrific.” He paused.

“That’s not a word,” Juliet said.

He sighed. “I know, but I had such good…” he trailed off snapping his fingers as if searching for a word.

“Alliteration,” she supplied.

“Right,” he said pointing at her. Juliet had the sneaking suspicion that Shawn _did_ know the word, but he acted dumb because it was all part of the image he worked hard to cultivate. She let it slide. “I had good alliteration going for me, I didn’t want to stop.” He smiled and this time it was closer to his usual self.

Juliet nodded along like this made sense to her. She walked across the office and sat on the edge of Gus’ desk, moving a few of his things out of the way. She knew Gus would be annoyed later, but was sure that Shawn would take the fall for her. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

“Talk about what? Jules, I told you, I’m—”

“Gerrific?” she asked cutting him off.

“Exactly.”

“You didn’t seem so gerrific earlier today.”

He looked at her like he didn’t understand what she was talking about.

“With Detective Lassiter,” she clarified. “The yelling?” she went on, when he continued to give her that same look.

He waved his hand, and the tennis ball went flying across the office, knocking a picture frame off the wall and causing it to crash to the floor loudly. The two of them stared at it in silence for what felt like a long moment. “I’ll get that later,” Shawn said dismissively. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jules. Everything is fine.”

Juliet sighed and crossed her arms across her chest. Sometimes if she gave Shawn the same glare she used on her nephews when she wanted them to confess which of them had tracked dirt into the house and waited, it would get Shawn talking. Juliet found one sure fire way to get Shawn to open up was to close her own mouth. Shawn didn’t like silences and would usually fill them. Mostly with nonsense, yes, but stay quiet long enough and he was bound to say something true.

Today, however, that plan didn’t seem to be working. Shawn avoided making eye-contact with her. He even got up from his desk and walked across the office to the broken picture frame, picking it up along with a few long shards of glass. Juliet was about to open her mouth to tell him to be careful when—

“Ouch!” Shawn exclaimed shaking his hand back and forth violently, before sticking two fingers into his mouth and sucking on them.

Juliet clamped down the urge to ask him if he was alright. If she wanted Shawn to tell her what was really bothering him about this case, she couldn’t give him any other avenues of conversation.

Still, he said nothing.

Juliet sighed and walked across the room, crouching down next to Shawn. The two of them cleaned up the glass in silence, and without any further injuries. “Let me see your hand,” she said.

“Juliet, if I die, tell Gus—”

She smacked his other arm and he yelped. “Is that any way to treat a mortally wounded man?” he asked.

“You’re fine,” she said. “Now show me your hand.”

He made a big show of looking faint, but finally he held out his hand. There was a long shallow gash running down the inside of his index finger. “You’re fine,” she repeated. “Where does Gus keep the first aid kit?”

“I can’t be expected to remember these things!” he said. “I’m the psychic detective, that’s why I _have_ a trusty sidekick.”

Juliet rolled her eyes. “I’m going to tell Gus you said that,” she told him, and glanced around the office.

Shawn brushed her off, but actually looked guilty. Juliet was sure the two men had had that argument several times. “I’m going to check the bathroom,” she said.”

The first-aid kit was indeed in the bathroom, and far better stocked than it really needed to be. Juliet supposed she shouldn’t be surprised, considering Gus’ job as a pharmaceutical rep, and she was pretty sure he was a bit of a hypochondriac. When she walked back into the main room, Shawn was sitting on the floor cross-legged just where she left him.

“Let me see,” she said.

He held out his hand without complaint, at least until Juliet put the disinfectant on. He yelped and pulled his hand away. “Don’t be a baby,” she chastised.

“Maybe you can sit there stoically while someone poured _fire_ on your open gaping wound, but that hurts!”

“You’re fine,” she said, and wrapped a bandage around his finger. “There you go, good as new.”

He looked down and flexed his finger. “Huh. How about that.”

Juliet looked down, she was still holding onto his wrist. She let go, but before she could pull her hand away, Shawn caught it with his. “My dad used to lock me in the trunk of his car.”

“What?” Juliet asked, genuinely shocked. She knew Henry and Shawn had a rough relationship, but that seemed extreme, even for them.

“To practice escaping,” he clarified, and that made more sense. “He would stand right there and tell me what to do, and make me practice until I could do it.”

Juliet didn’t know what to say.

“I just keep thinking about that kid, being taken from the parking lot,” he said. He was still holding her hand, and Juliet noticed how tight his grip was. Her fingertips were turning white. “It’s dark in the trunk of a car,” he said. “And hot, and you can’t breathe,” he cut off, and Juliet knew he wasn’t only speaking of his experiences as a kid.

She reached for his other hand, scooting towards him, until their knees were almost touching, Juliet’s feet folded up underneath her. He let her, and they sat like that, their hands joined, for a long moment. “We’ll find her,” she said.

“I’m not—I _can’t_ —” he cut off again.

“We will find her, Shawn. We will.”

He stared at her, searching for something, and slid his hands up her arms and over her shoulders. Juliet sucked in a breath when his palms brushed against her neck. He left his hands there, and she could feel the heat radiating off him.

It was always like this with them. One step forward, two steps back. Always circling closer and closer to each other only to pull back at the last second. Juliet had known for some time that Shawn felt something for her, and she was starting to suspect that it was more than he knew what to do with. That scared him. It scared her too, but now, staring at him, looking more vulnerable than she had ever seen him, she thought maybe, maybe—

“Jules,” he said, and they had both been leaning forward, his hands still hot and heavy against her skin, close enough now that she could feel his breath on her mouth as he said her name, and they were moving closer, closer, closer—

“That’s it!” he said.

“What?” she asked, completely startled

“That’s it,” he said again. “I got it.” He leaned forward quickly and kissed her hard on the mouth. “I got it,” he repeated, and jumped to his feet. Juliet could only look at him. He grinned down at her, wide and loud, and one hundred percent Shawn Spencer. “Let’s go,” he said impatiently, holding out his hand for her. She grabbed it and he pulled her onto her feet to follow after him.


End file.
